1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector having a housing with at least one holding shaft, the housing adapted to received a complementary plug and to the connector being in the form of an optical waveguide compling.
2. Description of Prior Developments
For some applications of such connectors, it is of decisive importance that the demountable connection cannot be undone in an uncontrolled fashion, and that it is completely certain that the plug parts are also plugged into one another correctly and completely.
For this purpose, in addition to a first locking mechanism, use is made of secondary locking mechanisms whose actuation is possible only if the plug parts are correctly interconnected, on the one hand, and which, furthermore, prevent the demountable connection from being inadvertently undone. Such demountable connections with secondary locking mechanisms are often complicated and generally comprise a plurality of parts.
The present invention relates further to an optical waveguide coupling. It is important in the case of such optical waveguide couplings for the losses in light intensity at the transition from one optical waveguide cable to the other or from an optical waveguide cable to an electro-optical element, having an optical input or output, to be kept as low as possible. For this purpose, it is necessary to keep the surface of the end face of the optical waveguide absolutely free from dust or other contaminants and to ensure this freedom from dust permanently. Moreover, such a coupling must be robust and compact.
Known optical waveguide couplings do not presently fulfil these requirements optimally. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,676 discloses a fibre optic coupler in which the coaxially opposite fibre ends of optical fibres to be connected crimp between them a diaphragm which is transparent and has the same refractive index as the optical fibres themselves. The result is to produce a good optical transition between the fibres to be connected. However, owing to the mechanical contact between the end faces of the optical fibres and the diaphragm there is the risk of dust particles located thereon scratching the end faces of the optical fibres, in particular if the coupling is quite frequently undone and reconnected.
It is an object of the present invention to improve a connector of the type mentioned at the beginning in such a way that it has a secondary locking mechanism which can be designed in one piece with the connector housing, is compact and is easy to operate.
It is therefore another object of the present invention to present an optical waveguide coupling which is tight against dust, liquid and gaseous media, is compact, is very secure against being pulled out inadvertently, and is easy to operate.